In THE POWER, the world is a recognizable place. There's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power --- they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets.

A whaler's daughter, Flora Mackie first crossed the Arctic Circle at the age of 12. Years later, in 1892, determination and chance lead her back to northern Greenland as a scientist at the head of a British expedition. Geologist Jakob de Beyn was raised in Manhattan. Yearning for wider horizons, he joins a rival expedition. Jakob and Flora's paths cross. It is a fateful meeting, where passion and ambition collide and an irresistible attraction is born. The violent extremes of the north obsess them both: perpetual night and endless day; frozen seas and coastal meadows, and the strange, maddening pull it exerts on the people trying to make their mark on its vast expanses --- a pursuit of glory whose outcome will reverberate for years to come.

Alice is a scientist who relies on method, precision and tangible proof. But when her relationship with Oxford artist Peter Brown collapses spectacularly, she is forced to use her skills to evaluate her own life for the first time. Alice accepts an invitation to travel to the southernmost point of the earth, Antarctica. Upon arrival, she is awestruck by the strangeness of a continent painted in shades of blue and white, lit by an unearthly permanent sunlight. And nothing has prepared her for the close confines of a small base shared with eight men and one other woman. It’s in these close quarters that she develops a strong attraction to a man shrouded in danger and mystery.

Collin James is young, creative and unhappy. A college dropout, he waits tables and spends his free time beautifying the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his medium of choice: chalk. Collin’s art captivates passersby with its vibrant colors and intricate lines --- until the moment he wipes it all away. Nothing in Collin’s life is meant to last. Then he meets Nina. The daughter of a tech mogul who is revolutionizing virtual reality, Nina Lazare is trying to give back as a high school teacher, but her students won’t listen to her. When Collin enters her world, he inspires her to think bigger. Nina wants to return the favor, even if it means losing him.

In 1950s Glasgow, a household of women were found slaughtered in their beds. The father, William Watt, had a cast iron alibi, but police were convinced he was guilty. Determined to clear his name, Watt let it be known that he would pay for information. Step forward career criminal Peter Manuel, with compelling details only the murderer could know. Watt agreed to meet him. They spent 12 hours together, driving and drinking in Glasgow pubs and clubs. No one knows what happened that night. The next time they met was in the High Court where Manuel was defending himself against the murder charges. He called Watt as a witness and quizzed him about their long, shady night together.

In a windswept British seaside town, single mom Alice Lake finds a man sitting on a beach outside her house. He has no name and no idea how he got there. Against her better judgment, she invites him inside. Meanwhile, newlywed Lily Monrose grows anxious when her husband fails to return home from work one night. Soon, she receives even worse news: the man she married never even existed. Twenty-three years earlier, Gray and Kirsty Ross are teenagers on a summer holiday with their parents. An enigmatic young man starts paying extra attention to Kirsty. Something about him makes Gray uncomfortable. Who is the man on the beach? Where is Lily’s missing husband? And what ever happened to the man who made such a lasting and disturbing impression on Gray?

Lucy and Owen have taken the plunge, trading in their crazy life in a cramped apartment for Beekman, a bucolic Hudson Valley exurb. When friends at a wine-soaked dinner party reveal they've made their marriage open, sensible Lucy balks. There's a part of her, though, that's intrigued. Why not try a short marital experiment? Six months, clear ground rules, zero questions asked. When an affair with a man in the city begins to seem more enticing than the happily-ever-after she's known for the past nine years, Lucy must decide what truly makes her happy --- "real life" or the "experiment"?

It all starts during her commute home one night. Zoe Walker glances through her local paper and sees her own face staring back at her in a classified ad. With the grainy photo is a phone number and a listing for a website called FindTheOne.com. In the following days, she sees other women in the same ad, a different one every day, and nearly all of them show up in the newspapers as victims of increasingly violent crimes --- including murder. With the help of a determined cop, Zoe uncovers the ad’s twisted purpose. And suddenly, the man on the train sitting across the car --- the one smiling at Zoe --- could be more than just a friendly stranger.

After the death of his mother, Adam Raine and his father head north of London to the coal mining town of Scarsdale. Tensions between the miners and their employer, Sir John Scarsdale, escalate, and finally explode with terrible consequences. Adam’s fate shifts once again, and he finds himself drawn into the opulent Scarsdale family home where he makes an enemy of Sir John’s son, Brice. However, Adam finds consolation in the company of Miriam, the local parson’s beautiful daughter with whom he falls in love. When they become engaged and Adam wins a scholarship to Oxford, he starts to feel that his life is finally coming together --- until the outbreak of World War I threatens to tear everything apart.

Early one morning, 18-year-old Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England. The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman can rule the greatest nation in the world. But Victoria has very definite ideas about the kind of queen she wants to be. Everyone keeps saying she is destined to marry her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but she found him dull and priggish when they met three years ago. She is quite happy being queen with the help of her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, who may be old enough to be her father but is the first person to take her seriously.